Taylor Swift teams up with JD.com, Alibaba to fight fakes

American pop star Taylor Swift will sell her own branded clothing in China through tie-ups with leading e-commerce players JD.com and Alibaba Group.

In a bid to curb fake merchandise and unauthorized products, Swift will offer a new clothing line specifically for Chinese shoppers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Starting August 8, JD.com and Alibaba’s Tmall marketplace site will carry Taylor Swift-branded designer T-shirts, Kate Liegey, chief operating officer of Heritage66, a US branding company that is representing Swift and bringing her line to China, was quoted as saying.

In September, the singer will launch a women’s collection exclusively on JD.com.

All products will have anti-piracy hang tags that will enable customers to track their authenticity on the Web, Liegey said.

With the move, Swift joins a growing number of US companies and trade groups that are pushing China’s e-commerce players to halt the rampant selling of knockoffs, the Journal noted.

Liegey said she has been working with JD.com and Alibaba to remove unauthorized goods from their sites.

A spokesman for JD.com told the Journal that the company investigated and removed problematic items at Heritage66’s request.

An Alibaba spokeswoman said her group is determined to curb counterfeits and that it will work with Swift’s representatives to “protect her intellectual property rights”.

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